Southern New Hampshire is experiencing a surge of highway construction, with projects on I-93, F.E. Everett Turnpike, and Exit 4A in Londonderry progressing on schedule. From widening roads to building new bridges, these initiatives aim to alleviate traffic congestion and enhance safety, with completion dates set for 2025 and 2028.
Photo courtesy of NHDOT
Stone is placed for roadway widening.
From Londonderry to Manchester and Bedford to Nashua, it has been a busy summer of highway construction in the southern portion of New Hampshire, with crews working on new bridges, new lanes and new exits.
Major work on two of the state's busiest roadways, Interstate 93 and the F.E. Everett Turnpike, has recently reached key milestones and merged into their next phases.
The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) said that construction on I-93's Exit 4A in Londonderry, and its connecting road in Derry, remain on schedule.
Additionally, the stretch of the Everett Turnpike from northern Nashua to Merrimack and the Bedford tolls also are in full swing and on time, state transportation officials told the News Leader.
All segments of Exit 4A segments should be substantially complete in 2027, the news source reported Aug. 11, and the Everett widening construction should be substantially complete in 2028.
"The [Exit 4A] project is going well," noted Richard Arcand, a spokesperson of NHDOT. "The bridge, sound walls, ramp work and other tasks are on schedule and should be finished this fall."
He added, however, that the Exit 4A ramps and bridge will not be opened until all of the other segments of the projects are completed.
Construction bids for the next phase, which involves widening Folson Road in Derry, were due Aug. 15. The state agency expects the work on Folsom Road to begin late this year or early in 2025.
Initial planning for Exit 4A started in the mid-1980s. State and local officials hope the project will reduce congestion on New Hampshire Highway 102, improve safety, spark economic growth and relieve traffic on secondary roads in and around Derry.
Everett Turnpike to Undergo Road Expansions
The Everett Turnpike is a 44-mi. tollway that runs from the Massachusetts border north to Concord, N.H. Along the way, the route overlays several other roads, including U.S. Highway 3 to N.H. 101A in Nashua, and from there N.H. 101 in Bedford. There, the toll road connects with I-293 and continues almost 8 mi. north to Hooksett, where the turnpike picks up I-93 and travels an additional 12 mi. to its terminus just south of Concord.
By the end of the summer, drivers should be able to cruise easily in each direction from the I-293 interchange to the Bedford tolls on the Everett Turnpike, Arcand said, due to upgrades to the highway.
He added that the widening of the turnpike's northern segment from two lanes to three in both directions, from just north of the Bedford tolls to the I-293 interchange, is "substantially complete."
Construction crews are now performing work on the middle segment of the Everett Turnpike to expand the roadway to three lanes in each direction from the Exit 12 overpass in Merrimack to the Exit 13 interchange and on to the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and U.S. 3 in Bedford.
That project will continue through summer 2025, according to Arcand.
Looking ahead, construction also has gotten under way from Exit 8 in Nashua to just south of Exit 10 in Merrimack. New bridges over Baboosic Lake Road and Wire Road, in addition to widening the two-lane section from Exit 11 to Exit 12, are expected to start next year, the Union Leader reported.
In Manchester, the NHDOT has highway crews repairing the I-93 bridge at Exit 8.
"We hope to shift traffic to the repaired lanes and reopen the northbound off-ramp after Labor Day," Arcand explained.
Work on the I-93 bridge is expected to wrap up next summer or in the fall of 2025, he added.
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